Today in History - Sept. 1

In 1159, the only English pope in history, Adrian (or Hadrian) IV, died.

In 1422, Henry VI, an infant, became King of England on the death of his father, Henry V.

In 1535, Jacques Cartier visited and described the area now known as Tadoussac, Que. Cartier died exactly 22 years later -- on Sept. 1, 1557.

In 1557, Jacques Cartier, explorer of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River, died. He was born in 1491 in the English Channel port of St-Malo, France. He had been commissioned by French King Francis I to "discover certain islands and lands where it is said there is a large amount of gold and other riches to be found" and, if possible, find the route to Asia.

In 1715, King Louis XIV of France died of gangrene. His 72-year reign was the longest in European history.

In 1858, the British government took over the subcontinent of India from the East India Company.

In 1860, the cornerstone of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa was laid by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband.

In 1864, the wheels of Canadian Confederation were set in motion as the Charlottetown conference opened. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. planned the conference to discuss a maritime union. But representatives from the province of Canada, who had asked to attend, persuaded the eastern colonies to work toward a general union of British North America. The meeting led to the Quebec Conference one month later.

In 1864, Gen. William Sherman captured Atlanta, Ga., during the American Civil War.

In 1875, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the American novelist who wrote "Tarzan of the Apes," was born in Chicago. He died March 19, 1950.

In 1878, the first female telephone operator began working in Boston.

In 1879, the Provincial Workman's Association of Springhill, N.S., became the first legal trade union in Canadian coal mines.

In 1890, the Metropolitan Street Railway Co. of Toronto began running its first electric streetcar at 19 km/h.

In 1904, Montreal policeman Etienne Desmarteau became the first individual Olympic champion to represent Canada when he won the 56-pound weight throw in St. Louis. Desmarteau was fired for going to the Games, but reinstated when he returned with the gold medal. He died of typhoid the next year at 32. Ontario's George Orton had won the 2,500-metre steeplechase at the 1900 Games in Paris, but competed for the U.S. because Canada did not send a team.

In 1905, Alberta and Saskatchewan entered Confederation as Canada's eighth and ninth provinces.

In 1909, tinsmiths repairing an eavestrough in the west block of the Ontario legislature in Toronto caused a fire which destroyed that section of the building, leaving the central block untouched.

In 1914, "Martha," the last passenger pigeon in existence, died at the Cincinnati Zoo.

In 1917, The Canadian Press was formed as a co-operative to exchange news among Canadian newspapers.

In 1922, the first broadcast of a daily news program debuted on WBAY radio in New York.

In 1923, more than 142,000 people died in an earthquake that destroyed 575,000 homes in Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan.

In 1923, Canadian businessman and financier Kenneth Thomson was born in Toronto. He died June 12, 2006.

In 1937, Trans-Canada Air Lines made the first passenger and first international flight from Vancouver to Seattle.

In 1939, Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler invaded Poland, starting the Second World War. One day earlier, Germany had concluded a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. Hitler was then free to attack Poland, following his earlier demands for the return of Danzig and the Polish Corridor. Italy proclaimed its neutrality. Britain and France declared war against Germany two days later, while Canada followed suit on Sept. 10.

In 1944, Canadian troops liberated the French port of Dieppe, the scene of a disastrous Canadian raid two years earlier in the Second World War. …

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